Welsh Studies 611
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Welsh Studies 611 EARLY AND MEDIEVAL LITERATURE By Nerys Ann Jones, Department of Celtic, University of Edinburgh Our understanding of the genesis and transmission of the earliest Welsh poetry is greatly enhanced by the publication of John T. Koch, The Gododdin of Aneirin: Text and Context from Dark-Age North Britain, Cardiff, Univ. of Wales Press, cxliv + 262 pp. Thanks to his recon- structed text soundly based on principles of textual criticism and historical linguistics, it is now possible to distinguish clearly between the 6th-c. stratum in the Book of Aneirin and later accretions and also to identify modifications to the older material. The reconstruction is based on a detailed theory of the text’s history outlined in the introduction which will provide food for thought and discussion among Hengerdd scholars for many years to come. Other contributions to the study of the Gododdin include, P. R. Wilson et al., ‘Early Anglian Catterick and Catraeth’, Medieval Archaeology, 40:1–61, and C. Cessford, ‘Northern England and the Gododdin Poem’, Northern History, 33 :218–22. R. G. Gruffydd continues his series of short studies on the additions to the Gododdin corpus with ‘The Strathcarron interpolation (Canu Aneirin, lines 966–77)’, SGS, 17:172–78, and ‘The Englynion of Llyfr Aneirin’, O Hehir Vol., 32–39. A new interpretation of another interpolated text is provided in K. A. Klar and E. E. Sweetser, ‘Reading the unreadable: ‘‘Gwarchan Maelderw’’ from The Book of Aneirin’, ib., 78–103. Metrical analysis of this most obscure composition reveals a four poem sequence understood by a later copyist as a single unit and attributed to Tailiesin. M. Haycock examines the meaning, nature, and possible sources of the questions posed by the Taliesin persona in ‘Taliesin’s questions’, CMCS, 33:19–79, while S. L. Higley, ‘The Spoils of Annwn: Taliesin and material poetry’, O Hehir Vol., 43–53, shows how coherence can be given to the disparate parts of Preiddeu Annwn by interpreting the raid upon the otherworld as a depiction of Taliesin’s seizure of poetic knowledge. New insights into two Gogynfeirdd poems are provided by M. P. Bryant-Quinn, ‘ ‘‘Archaf weddi ’’: rhai sylwadau ar farwysgafn Meilyr Brydydd’, LlC, 20 :12–24, a reinvestigation of the themes of Meilyr’s death bed poem in the light of what is known of the devotional and theological tradition of 12th-c. Wales, and C. McKenna, ‘The hagiographic poetics of Canu Cadfan’, O Hehir Vol., 121–37, which focuses on the hagiographical dimension of a mid 12th-c. awdl to St Cadfan of Tywyn and speculates as to the relationship between the early Gogynfeirdd’s poems to saints and the prose vita which began to 612 Welsh Studies be produced in Wales in the same period. J. E. C. Williams, ‘Yr Arglwydd Rhys ac Eisteddfod Aberteifi 1176: y cefndir diwylliannol’, YB, 22:80–142, is an updated, fuller version of an article on the culture of the court of Rhys ap Gruffudd of Deheubarth which appeared in Yr Arglwydd Rhys, ed. N. A. Jones and Huw Pryce (see YWMLS, 58:639). R. M. Jones, ‘Gogynghanedd y Gogynfeirdd’, YB, 22:41–79, takes a fresh look at the development of proto- cynghanedd in medieval Welsh court poetry by applying the distinction first noted by Saussure between levels of langue and discours to analysis of the ornament used by the Poets of the Princes. A most welcome index of the personal and place names of the Gogynfeirdd corpus is provided in A. Parry Owen, ‘Mynegai i enwau priod ym marddoniaeth Beirdd y Tywysogion’, LlC, 20:25–45. Three volumes have been published in the University of Wales Centre for Advanced Studies in Welsh and Celtic series, Cyfres Beirdd yr Uchelwyr, under the general editorship of Ann Parry Owen, Gwaith Goronw Gyriog, Iorwerth ab y Cyriog ac eraill, ed. Rhiannon Ifans et al., Aberystwyth, UWCASWC, xvii + 166 pp. contains editions of the work of five 14th-c. poets from north-west Wales, Goronw Gyriog, his son Iorwerth ab y Cyriog, Mab Clochyddyn, Gruffudd ap Tudur Goch and Ithel Ddu. Gwaith Einion OVeiriad a Dafydd Ddu o Hiraddug, ed. R. Geraint Gruffydd and Rhiannon Ifans, Aberystwyth, UWCASWC, xviii + 204 pp. is an edition of the poetry associated with Einion Offeiriad, author of the first version of the bardic grammars, 1320–25, and his contemporary Dafydd Ddu o Hiraddug who was responsible for a later edition of the grammar. Gwaith Dafydd Gorlech, ed. Erwain H. Rheinallt, Aberystwyth, UWCASWC, xvi + 106 pp. brings to light the work of a learned vaticinatory poet of the second half of the 15th century. Editions and discussions of individual poems from the 14th and 15th cs include Rh. Ifans, ‘Cerdd Freuddwyd’, YB, 22:143–60, on the earliest complete dream poem in Welsh, the work of 14th-c. Gruffudd ap Tudur Goch; G. A. Williams, ‘Cywydd Gwilym ap Sefnyn i Afon Ogwen ac Afon Menai’, Dwned, 3:83–89, on a praise poem to Robin ap Gruffudd of Cochiwllan, Arfon in which Gwilym ap Sefnyn describes the perilous journey from Anglesey to his patron’s home; R. I. Daniel, ‘Cywydd moliant a brud i Ddafydd Llwyd ap Dafydd ab Einion o’r Drenew- ydd’, Dwned, 3 :53–61, on a poem of uncertain authorship containing a combination of praise and prophecy addressed to a nobleman of South Wales who was a supporter of the Yorkist cause. Finally, D. Johnston, ‘Gwenllı¨an ferch Rhirid Flaidd’, ib., 3 :27–32, deals with the debate poem which contains a stanza attributed to Gwenllian daughter of Rhirid Flaidd, hitherto thought to be the first Welsh.